Are we taking Scotland seriously ?

Ms Sturgeon assured her Edinburgh audience that “independence from government is essential to our public service broadcasters”. This may have caused wry smiles among those who are harassed on a daily basis to comply precisely with the agenda of government. Practising what one preaches is a useful starting point in changing perceptions. But the bigger problem in Scotland is that the phrase “independence from government is essential to…” could be applied in so many contexts where the exact opposite has evolved in practice. There is now no branch of Scottish civic or public life dependent on Edinburgh largesse or patronage that can remotely be described as “independent from government”. Why would broadcasting, the prize target, be different?
And Pat Kane in The National.

I enjoyed the brilliant, likeable – still evidently Glaswegian, but also pretty establishment – Armando Iannucci and his Mactaggart Television Lecture. But as you listen, it’s easy to imagine the case for Scottish channels being drowned in the grander storm of liberal-left and conservative UK elites, battling mightily for the “soul of the Beeb”. That’s what happens when you don’t vote to become a nation-state: all that’s left is supplication and reasoned argument to the centre, mostly likely resulting in a head-pat and a “terribly sorry”. And there you can bundle up BBC Scotland reform with lots of other devolutionary frustrations. But, of course, there’s more to Scottish media than pining after Pacific Quay with an SBC badge on it.